


But They Had Today

by ProlixProse



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Best Friends, Bittersweet, First Kiss, Fluff, Light-Hearted, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-14 00:12:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7144208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProlixProse/pseuds/ProlixProse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kei looked up, made a mocking calculative gesture with his finger in an effort to ease the tension. Mainly, to ignore the ache.<br/>“Let’s see, that’s approximately 90 days, 18 hours, 21 minutes until our friendship comes to its inevitable end--”<br/>“Don’t,” Tadashi said, a bit of small amusement yet undeniable hurt etched in his tone. "Please."<br/>Kei noticed his hands gripping the chains of the swing, blinking back the tears that would follow. He kicked his shoe against the snow and looked skyward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“So, you’re leaving.”

The words hung in the air between them. Tadashi felt like grabbing ahold of them and pushing them back where they came from, as if doing so would make the statement any less real, any less certain.

Instead, he took a breath and pushed himself backwards and forwards on the swingset, staring hard at the few stars above.

“Yeah…” He finally agreed, having to swallow.

“When?” Kei asked, face toward the cars rolling by on the road opposite the park, but his eyes darted toward his friend.

Tadashi looked down, shook his shoulders. “Mom… she uh, wants to have everything situated first… make sure the job is secured before we… before we-- pack and everything.”

Kei rolled his eyes as he let Tadashi finish and nodded. He glanced at his friend, then looked away.

“You already know when.”

“I don’t think it matters saying it… it’ll just make us feel like we’re counting down the days,” Tadashi spoke quietly, his feet skidding against the ground beneath them, the swing swaying him sideways. He stopped the motions and held his breath as he waited for the blonde’s reply. 

But Kei said nothing, left his back to stare at Tadashi in a spiteful silence as he twisted himself on the swing. Tadashi took a deep breath and shook his head at himself, closing his eyes.

“Three months.”

Kei stilled, blinked several times. Three months. Against the several years they had gotten to know each other… three months would feel like a day and a half. He felt something hit his chest, a certain sort of ache akin to longing for something. Never for  _ someone _ . Never had it been necessary.

He looked up, made a mocking calculative gesture with his finger, made an effort to ease the tension. Mainly to ignore the ache.

“Let’s see, that’s approximately 90 days, 18 hours, 21 minutes from now until our friendship comes to its inevitable end--”

“Don’t,” Tadashi said, a bit of small amusement yet undeniable hurt etched in his tone. "Please."

Kei noticed his hands gripping the chains of the swing, blinking back the tears that would follow. He kicked his shoe against the snow and looked skyward.

“Probably won’t be crawling with idiots, then.”

Tadashi, head rested against his hand, rose a brow. “What?”

“Then again, who knows. There’s all kinds of idiots that scatter themselves globally...”

Kei looked at him, a calm expression etched into his features, hiding some sort of strain beneath. But Tadashi took the bait for all it was worth. He looked at him a moment, then made a ‘psh’ sound to the wind, cackling a short laugh.

“Maybe,” He said, amused. He quirked a brow. “Better volleyball courts too, I bet.”

“It probably won’t wreak like a wet dog after practice,” Kei added with a bitter, light tone.

“That’s only Tanaka and he smells fine… usually. What really gets me is Hinata’s and Kageyama’s musk--”

“With those too wrestling all over the court, no wonder they stench up the place.”

“Oh, but there wouldn’t be the same managers.”

“Oh no, how would you ever survive without the precious managers--.”

“Tsukki! They’re nice is all. You like Hitoka-chan too, admit it.”

Tadashi let out a sound of laughter as Kei smiled at him, amusedly, giving in. The two faced each other in the cold night, noses tinted red, eyes just a bit brighter than before. 

“Maybe you’re right,” Kei responded.

Tadashi blushed faintly as he perked a smile. 

“I’m usually right. You just never admit it.”

“I just don’t say the obvious out loud,” Kei shrugged his shoulders and glanced at a car that passed as Tadashi stared at him, his eyes becoming puffy. 

“Unnecessary--”

“I’m going to miss you so much, Tsukki.”

The boy paused, taken aback, his eyes jumping back to his friend. Tadashi blinked and looked down, shaking his head and mumbling at himself as Kei looked the other way.

“I mean… sorry, I just…”

Tadashi scratched at his head, laughed awkwardly to fill the space, though he felt like crying. He wiped at a stray tear and looked up to keep it all in. He didn’t feel like breaking. Not when they had today.

“Haha, what I meant… I didn’t… I mean, of course I will-- but, still--”

“I’ll miss you too.”

Tadashi turned his head to him, watched the other shift and glare at his shoes. A warmth spread across his chest. Kei, decidedly, grew silent. The trees above blew their leaved branches in the wind, and it was then that Tadashi found his voice and left the smallest of sound between them.

“Really?” 

Kei made a face and rolled his eyes, muttering to the night.

“First you say things that are obvious and don’t need to be said, then you ask if they’re true.”

Tadashi furrowed his brows and tilt his head at him, wiping his sleeve against his nose. 

“So, you will, then?”

“Of course, stop asking.”

Tadashi smiled wide. “Sorry, Tsukki.”

Kei looked over at him, and Tadashi read his face, tried to figure out what could be going through his head. He could never tell. Kei kept most of himself hidden, even to himself. 

Which is why Tadashi could have never been prepared when the boy reached over and placed a hesitant kiss at his left cheek. 

The two shared a beat of silence as Kei pulled away. Tadashi had no words. His eyes shyly held the other’s, a new, odd feeling molding itself between them, a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability the two had never known to share. Neither knew exactly how to carry that fresh burden. 

All Tadashi knew was that he didn’t want Kei to leave.

Kei, on the other hand, wanted to do exactly that.

The blonde stood from the swing immediately and as soon as he made to turn away and flee, Tadashi reached out for him.

“Wait, don’t go--”

Before he could finish, Tadashi tripped over the snow at their feet, tugging too hard at Kei’s sleeve as he fell, causing the other to stumble with him, knocking his elbow against the blonde’s cheek. Kei’s eyes went wide as he slipped, accidentally shoving Tadashi down, his knee colliding with the other’s stomach. 

When both reached the ground, Kei feeling a sharp pain at the side of his face and Tadashi holding onto his stomach, it took several moments before either was fully recovered. 

“Ah,” Kei touched his face, flinching. “You okay?”

“Ugh,” Tadashi nodded with a wince. “Yeah, yeah-- did I hurt you? I’m so sorry, agh, it-- it looks like it’ll bruise--”

“Worry about yourself. Are you going to be okay?” Kei asked, lifting himself from the ground and sitting above the other as Tadashi lay on his back, biting his lip and trying to get over the pain.

“Me? I’m fine…” He huffed out, shook his head at himself, and laughed. “I’ll just… lay here for a moment.”

Kei looked at him worriedly, his brows knit and expression hard. Finally, he shook his head and lay beside him, shoulder against shoulder, looking up at the dark sky with the smallest traces of stars. And there, above their heads, the shining moon.

“What were you even doing? Trying to secure a doctor’s appointment?” Kei asked lowly as Tadashi blew out a large breath. The brown haired boy laughed again, quieter this time.

“No, I just…,” He swallowed, flicked his eyes toward Kei and back at the sky. “I didn’t want you to leave.”

Kei narrowed his gaze, looked down at himself, the sting of his cheek more present.

“Why?” He asked with suspicion.

Tadashi felt himself flush. 

“I didn’t want you to think I took it the wrong way,” he said, almost a whisper to the night. “Because… I, um-- I also… What I mean is…”

Kei didn’t respond, held his silence as stubbornly as one could. Tadashi looked over at him and found his expression hidden. He scrunched his brows.

“It’s okay, you know… Doing that…,” he winced at himself, feeling as though he was saying all the wrong words. He tried again. “You’re my best friend… You know, you mean-- you mean a lot to me, Tsukki, and… and I--”

“Let’s not talk about it,” His voice came as quick as a whip and Tadashi drew back, feeling as if he were playing with fire. But he pushed forward.

“I-- want to, though... Talk about it, I mean.” He drew some confidence. “I want to talk about it.”

“Well there’s nothing to say. You’re leaving. So drop it.”

“...Is that why you did it? Because I’m leaving?”

Kei rolled his eyes, shifted to sit up. “I’m not talking about this--”

Tadashi grabbed his arm. “Please, don’t go.”

“Just let it go, Yamaguchi. I won’t ignore you for three months if that’s what you’re worried about. So let’s just go home and sleep and forget it.”

“Tsukki, wait.” 

Kei sighed out, heard the rustle of Tadashi’s jacket as he sat up. He thought of one last, biting comment to get him off his back and turned around, just as the cold touch of Tadashi’s hand met his cheek and he winced.

“Ah!”

“Sorry!” Tadashi flinched back, but covered his mouth, hiding his small laughter. Kei grew irritant as he covered his bruising cheek. Tadashi hesitantly reached out once more.

“Does it hurt badly?”

Kei slowly moved his jaw, his eyes squinting.

“I’m fine…” He said, looking over at Tadashi, which in retrospect, was the last thing he should have done. 

He met his gaze all at once, seemed to fix himself in the Tadashi’s eyes as his hand held his cheek once more, softer this time, a gentleness that wrecked his heart. Tadashi inched closer then, until the smallest of space stayed between them and all they could feel was the other’s breathes at the tips of their noses. 

A lingered question of permission permeated around the two, their vulnerability heightened yet not overtaken by the new desire to finish what had been started. Kei, with the smallest of motions, lowered his head, bent closer. Tadashi closed the gap with a soft kiss against his lips, pulling away all too quickly. The sensation felt too real yet too dreamlike all at once. Kei wanted to shut his eyes and never open them again.

“Was that okay?” Tadashi’s voice whispered right in front of him, too close. Kei felt he couldn’t breathe, much less respond. Instead, he lingered a moment, let his heart bounce around a bit before grabbing ahold of his jacket and met him once more for another kiss, pressing closer--

“Ah!” The pain jolted at his cheek once more and he groaned. Tadashi pulled back just as quick, a smile playing at his lips, his face entirely pink and breath short.. 

“M-- maybe we should go inside now.” A chuckle passed his lips. 

“Finally. I thought you’d just keep me prisoner out here all night.” Kei muttered back as they both stood, Tadashi linking arms with him to keep their balance. He let out a breath of laughter.

“Only if you made me angry.”

“Remind me never to make you angry... Again, I guess.”

And just like that, a relative normal fizzled between the pair again. Maybe there was something there now which they’d never thought was present. Maybe, they would figure that something out, or simply let it stay where they’d found it, in a heap of snow by the swingset on a cold Sunday night. Neither knew just what would happen, yet neither felt a severed tear between them. Which, as far as they felt, was okay for today. 

The two shared a look and let the laughter surround them, allowing a small glance every so often with the faintest of blushes and a stare or two at their shoes. They walked along the narrow sidewalk, the snow crunched beneath their feet and the promise of dawn in only a few short hours. 

Just like the hours, the days, weeks, and eventual months will pass just as shortly. 

But they had today.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Tadashi leaves. (Previously posted on my tumblr from an ask. I thought it would fit as a good continuation here)

“Please, don’t leave.”

It was a hushed voice, breathed into a pillow in a throng of irritable sleep.

Tadashi blinked up from his side of their makeshift bed of blankets on the floor. Yawning, he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He made a small ‘hm’ sound.

“What’d you say?” He murmured in the quiet space between him and the blonde rested next to him.

Waiting for a moment, and receiving no reply, Tadashi opened his eyes fully and searched the dark. He first peered up to his bedroom window, noticing the navy blue of the sky and the faded yellow of the streetlamp outdoors as it seeped into his room. He lifted his head, glanced at the blaring red digits of his alarm clock. Two in the morning.

Tadashi then looked down to his bedmate, who knit his brows in his sleep and was shaken awake by something from a dream. Kei, blinking thrice, raking a hand over his head, peered around to check if he’d been noticed. Then, his eyes met Tadashi’s. Tadashi furrowed his brows, lips parted in a faint worry.

“...Bad dream?”

Kei didn’t look at him, but he sat up, muffled a yawn into his hand and trained his eyes on something in front of him. Tadashi sat up, stretched his legs out, and tried to follow his gaze. He seemed to be staring at something on Tadashi’s desk. He was looking at his jersey, and Tadashi remembered he’d put it there to get it dry cleaned before he…

Tadashi turned his head to his friend and then back to the blankets at his knees. He put a hand to his neck, unsure of what to say. Or, truly, unsure of how his voice would sound if he said anything.

“You have to get that dry cleaned, right?” Kei asked after what seemed like several long minutes of silence. Tadashi nodded.” Kei asked after what seemed like several long minutes of silence. Tadashi nodded.

“Yeah… I’m going in the morning.”

“You’re really getting these things done last minute, aren’t you?” Kei teased, but his tone didn’t seem to hold the same weight as it usually did.

“Well,” Tadashi sucked in a breath, tried to laugh, then shook his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess.”

Kei gave him a side glance, sitting up straighter and leaning his back against the wall near Tadashi’s window.

“Honestly,” he said beneath his breath. Tadashi made a small smile and followed his gesture, sitting beneath the window with him and looking around his room. He tilt his head up.

“It feels weird… You know, I didn’t think it would, but… it feels weird. Seeing my room from this angle.”

Kei pushed his knees to his chin and stayed silent. Tadashi looked up to the ceiling, made a warm laugh.

“I sometimes forget those star stickers are up there, too. Remember that, Tsukki? When we tried to make our own glow in the dark ones but, ha, it didn’t go so well, did it?”

Kei glanced up to the ceiling, scanning his eyes where Tadashi pointed. Something short of a smile tugged at his lips.

“Didn’t help that it’s a popcorn ceiling, either.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what we were thinking.”

Kei snorted. “We weren’t.”

Tadashi laughed, putting a hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.

“I think I’ll keep them there. For the next kid.”“Yeah, because that’s definitely a selling point. House must have

“Yeah, because that’s definitely a selling point. House must have room with cheap star stickers scattered on a popcorn ceiling with roof stains. They’d have to buy it right then and there.”

Tadashi snorted, laughed again, and bumped his shoulder with Kei’s.

“Obviously…” He added between his dying chuckles.

Kei took a breath when their shoulders pressed against each other, which they still were. He closed his eyes and tried to stash this moment into a memory. He played Tadashi’s laugh over and over in his head. Keepsakes.

“Thank you for helping me pack today,” Tadashi said, quietly, looking at the corner of his room filled with boxes, their labels glaring holes into his side. He looked down and twisted his fingers together. Kei shrugged, waving off the unnecessary ‘thank you’ and shook his head.

“Well, someone had to help your mother, what with having a son who procrastinates getting his jersey dry cleaned.”

Tadashi smiled down to his hands.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll take it in the morning, promise.”

Tadashi looked up to Kei, his eyes flitting over his face. Kei could barely meet his gaze and frowned at his jersey from across the room. Tadashi, after a moment, sighed and followed his eyes to the jersey as well. He, then, without hesitation and trying to give it as little thought as he could, rested his head against Kei’s shoulder. He gently pressed it there, waited for a flinch of muscles to relax, but there was only a comforting acceptance. He could hear Kei swallow, just barely.

“I think… I’ll miss the team,” Tadashi said.

“You think?”

“Just a little.”

“Hm,” Kei responded, his voice soothing to Tadashi’s ear and he was dangerously close to falling asleep again. “You know, they made you a going away banner as a surprise.”

Tadashi mock gasped. “Tsukki, why would you ruin the surprise?”

Kei bumped his shoulder up with a smirk and Tadashi chuckled back, indicating he knew that Tadashi had already spoiled the surprise for himself anyway.

“Half of the team are terrible at keeping secrets.” He admitted, nudging Kei’s side.

“Just awful.” Kei softly shoved back.

And then, it was silent once more. Tadashi felt his eyes droop and at some point Kei had leaned his head back over his. Tadashi felt a buzz of emotions pull through him at two thirty-two in the morning. Maybe it was the drowsiness that heightened his confidence in relaying how he felt, or maybe it was the idea of losing time, but Tadashi felt the words slip from his mind as languid as water.

“Hey, Tsukki,” he whispered and Kei shifted.

“Hm?”

“Can I… tell you something?”

He felt Kei shrug in reply, took that as a yes and breathed in.

“I love you, you know,” Tadashi said, fondly and surely, eyes focused on the 12 on his jersey and chest feeling light. “And I mean, not just as a friendly wave or a goodbye, but… I mean it, I really do love you.”

The room seemed motionless.

Then, he felt Kei move.

Tadashi peered up at him as he sat back, head rested against the wall now instead of a shoulder. He wasn’t sure he knew how to read the expression on Kei’s face, only that he knew the other wasn’t angry. Which was good. He didn’t want his friend-- his best friend-- to be angry with him only a week before he had to leave.

Kei didn’t say anything, seemed to struggle with something as he turned his head from Tadashi’s face. Tadashi furrowed his brows, hesitantly touched Kei’s shoulder. Kei took a breath and moved his hand, and Tadashi thought it was to remove his own, but he only covered it over Tadashi’s. He felt his stomach twist in a wonderful way, and yet he still felt a rawness soak through him in a fearful fizzle.

“I’m going to do something,” Kei said finally, turning to look once more at Tadashi, who could still not read his expression in the dark.

“Okay--”

He felt his lips before he felt the hand at his cheek, or the one that reached the floor, still covering his own, intertwining their fingers. It was wet, and maybe it was from the clumsiness of the kiss or the tears biting their cheeks, but all Tadashi could think of was the touch of wetness and the wonderful feeling in his stomach again, spreading to his chest, to his fingers, the tips of his ears, his mouth, his nose; it was everywhere. He started to laugh, even. Between the space of their mouths when they parted for a moment, he laughed. Even as Kei pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips, to his cheek, to his brow, he laughed.

In the end, they held onto each other in a tight embrace, whispers of tomorrow and of yesterday mingling together as well as the laughter and hurt. They laid back down beneath the cocoon of blankets, reminiscing the past, pondering the future and stroking their hands over the other’s face. This wasn’t the first time they’d shared a kiss. Tadashi could count the number and the types. But, this time felt like a shared secret they’d harbored for so long; a floodgate had broken.

And then the week disappeared too soon. Time was always tricky like that. How fast it seemed, a year or even a month or week could pass by. How an hour of someone’s life could be so important that they’d commit it to memory. How sometimes, time took only a second, to fill a person’s emotions with the fleeting touch of pain or pleasure.

Time was just strange.

Kei’s knuckles turned white as he lifted the weight of the last box, Tadashi huffing on the opposite end to bring it inside the back of the moving van. They pushed it in, releasing it with a thud to the bottom of the trunk, and Kei took one last, furtive look at the storage of memories, before Tadashi reached up and shut the door closed.

Kei glanced at his hands, stuffed them into his pockets, and shifted on his legs. The sky grew cloudy and a single drop of rain bit his cheek. He winced at it.

Tadashi, silent throughout it all, hand still on the latch, nodded solemnly. The two shared a look, before moving to wrap their arms around the other.

“It won’t be too far, I think…”

“Five hour drive?” Kei muttered. “Sure, that’s a walk in the park.”

Tadashi squeezed him tighter for the remark before slowly letting him go.

“I’m going to miss you.”

“You’ve said that.”

“I can say it a hundred times!”

“Which you have.”

“Tadashi!” His mother called over, giving a wave of her hand. Tadashi waved back and nodded, then looked at Kei once more.

“I’ll text you right when we get there.”

Kei raised a brow, then rolled his eyes.

“Obviously.”

Tadashi grinned and took his hand. Kei gripped back, felt something bugging the back of his head.

“I do too,” he said, as if he almost forgot, his eyes searching Tadashi’s.

Tadashi scrunched his brows and they shared a beat of silence before realization came to his face and he took a breath to say something, but Kei leaned forward and his words became swallowed in the kiss.

Kei shut his eyes, trying to remember this as well.

Then, the air was cold again, and Tadashi’s hand lingered before that space too was cold. Kei stood where he was as Tadashi climbed into the vehicle, gave a small wave as Tadashi sprung his hand out of the window and grinned. He stayed even as the van rounded the corner, even as the wind sighed at him, all with a single thought pounding in his head, hitting him in waves.

**Please, don’t go.**


End file.
